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While testing a new shielding device, the USS Enterprise is caught in the middle of a Klingon/Romulan battle. When the Enterprise crew rescues a lifepod, they are confronted by a Klingon who claims to know nothing of human existence. Convinced the Klingon is telling the truth, Captain Kirk hurries to Starfleet Headquarters in search of answers. But upon arriving on Earth, the starshipEnterprise crew finds that Earth is a vast jungle-like paradise where large, reptilian animals rule ... with no signs of human life anywhere. Now Kirk must travel to the past in search of the key to the mystery - or face the destruction of the human race.

In one of his anecdotal footnotes from Danse Macabre [1], Stephen King remarked that this very same story idea was proposed by author Harlan Ellison as the subject for the first Star Trek film; the Enterprise would travel back in time to discover they were in this alternate dinosaur reality, and would have to make the moral decision whether to destroy that reality in favor of their own. The story goes that one of the producers was fascinated by the Mayan calendar, insisted that Ellison include that in the story (which he insisted had no relevance), and after some argument, Ellison walked out in a huff.